UN's Ban Ki-moon criticized for poor leadership
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 9:27PM
Tala Dowlatshahi in Frontpage 1, News/Commentary, United Nations
A leaked report released this week claims the UN Secretary-General does not have the capacity to deal with global conflicts in Sri Lanka and Burma, is frequently absent and cannot properly come up with solid solutions to aid developing countries during this financial crisis.

The report, published by Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper, was addressed to Norway's Foreign Minister from Mona Juul, the United Nations Ambassador to Norway. Juul wrote:

"At a time when the U.N. and multilateral solutions to global crises are more needed than ever, Ban and the U.N. are notable by their absence."

"As you know," Juul wrote, "(Ban) was a conscious choice by an American Administration that did not want an active Secretary-General. The current US Administration has not signaled a changed attitude toward Ban either -- although there are rumors that some in Washington are now calling Ban a 'one-term secretary-general."

The Secretary-General's recent visits to Burma, and his failure to mitigate the thousands of deaths and injuries of civilians in the recent Sri Lanka crisis, are also cited in the report as main examples of his failures.

Juul underlined that Ban Ki-moon was a "passive observer" to Burma's unjust and continued house detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"In other crisis areas, such as Darfur, Somalia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and not in the least the Congo, the Secretary-General seems irresolute."

Juul added that the Secretary-General has frequent public bouts of anger and the current mood among Ban's staff is "very tense."

Ban Ki-moon is also the most traveled of all the previous UN Secretary-General's. Many within the system have criticized these travels as wasted spending.  A native of South Korea, Ban was elected in 2007. He is now half-way through his term.
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